quilt, create, inspire

Wow! This “very first blog entry” has turned out to be quite the daunting task… finding the perfect first sentence is oddly intimidating, so I’m going to have to jump right in and introduce myself. My name is Lauren Jung and my mom, Jessi, and I have recently designed our first fabric line for Moda Fabrics.

To give a little context to this whole venture… I recently finished up a graduate program in graphic design at the Portfolio Center in Atlanta. I looked for a job, but being October, no firms were hiring which lead to a very depressing Christmas.

It was this same feeling of failure… mixed with a little bit of boredom that lead to the actual idea of designing a line of fabric. After sitting around for a few days at my grandparent’s house in Topton, PA, I told my mom that I thought we should design a fabric line… because, afterall, how hard could it be.

Three months later, after many frustrating late nights, we finished our line and decided to call it Botany. I assembled a fanciful promotional box set containing a deck of 65 swatch cards (each displaying a different pattern in its full 10×10 glory, as well as a book of 9 quilts and 5 alternate applications… in order to show the line’s diversity and potential. After dotting all my i’s and crossing all my t’s, I dropped this extremely tedious presentation into the mail and sent it to Moda Fabrics.

If it wasn’t for the thoroughness of FEDex, however, this extremely tedious presentation would have been submitted anonymously, as I forgot to include any form of identification within the packet… no name, no phone number, no return address.

I never cease to amaze myself!

That week turned out to be a very lucky week for me! Within days of hearing that Moda was going to produce our line, I found out from G2 Interactive, the web design company that I had applied to five months prior, that they were going to hire me on as a web designer!

It’s been a real feat balancing my day job with my fabric designing, and I’ve become very thankful for my amazing time management skills. In two months I’ve thrown together this blog, designed and created our website, and within a week, banged out 133 promotional packets to hand out at this year’s Fall Market… which was no small task. Also in this two month span, my mom has designed and written the instructions for 6 complimentary patterns (available for download on our website), as well as outlined and sketched out the idea for our next line. We’ve gotten together twice now since I’ve moved, but the majority of our collaboration takes place over the phone… with me in Philadelphia and her in Spartanburg, SC.

And… I think that about covers everything in terms of an intro… we’re so excited to be a part of this whole scene, and look forward to hearing from anyone and everyone who is interested in us, our line, or fabric design in general!

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Lauren Jung

I'm the designer in the group... And I write about half of the blog posts here. I'm also co-founder of a startup called Shelf (launching soon).

Carrie Jung

Carrie heads up our PR department. She's also one of the main contributors to a book that we're publishing. And she takes care of LOTS of other stuff, because she's awesome! And we all think she should quit her day job to pursue the wonderful world of pattern making. (Kidding Carrie, chill.)